July 12th, 2009:
STONEHENGE!
Rumors had spread around the group that I was "over" Tessa and pissed at her for what I felt in my mind as a double diss… or even a double standing-up… or ditching. So I took it upon myself to deliberately have breakfast with Rachel and Tessa and try and smooth the water with Tessa and I. Things were a little icy, but she seemed cool with me, so in my mind, I was going to be cool with her. We boarded our tour bus this morning headed for our first destination: Jane Austin's house. (The house in which she never left.) On the way there, Jenny and I sat next to each other on the bus and were studying and writing notes for our independent study.
Jane Austin's house and the little village around it were very cute.
So picturesque and exactly what I would imagine the English country side to look like: kinda like Missouri or Bilbo Baggins Land. And it was a really neat house. In the smoke house adjacent to Ms. Austin's abode, there was a sign about burning a "faggot" of sticks on the fire that we all thought was funny. I especially was pointing it out to everyone so they didn't feel politically incorrect by gasping or looking at it and smirking like I had. The town she lived in consisted of only a few houses, a store/market, and a pub/eatery. Very quaint. Being there felt like being in a scene from Emma or Sense and Sensibility.
Though we had anything BUT sense. Or sensibility.
Next on our little day trip was the village of Winchester.
Outside of the cathedral was a village center with an open market place. There was a farmer's market going on and we all got little treats- be it jams or bratwurst or homemade beer. We toured Winchester Cathedral and it was pretty awesome. The church itself is over 1000 years old and many famous people, such as Jane Austin, are buried there.
We heard there was some castle ruins nearby, so Julia, Ernie, Rachel, Yasmin, Jenny, and myself went to Wolvesley Castle ruins to check it out. That too was very old -some of the oldest medieval castle ruins in Europe- and the castle itself had been built on top of a small river. That river water was so clear it looked like you could just jump in and drink out of it.
Soon we had to leave Winchester and head on to our main event and final destination:
STONEHENGE.
We heard it was over an hour long trip from Winchester, so I thought it might be a good time to sit next to Tessa and talk with her. We had a pretty decent time conversing, actually. Our lovely day in the sun tootling around southern England turned afoul when it began to rain on the trip to Stonehenge. Luckily the rain went away for about the first 30 minutes of our arrival at Stonehenge, which gave us just enough time to pile out of the bus and receive our individual audio tour guides.
We began touring the 'Henge when a burst of cold rain started pouring down on us. We pressed on, kept up with the tour, and very shortly after it started, that downpour of rain ended and the sky began to clear up again. The pictures we took of Stonehenge with the crazy storm clouds in the background ended up being really cool as a result. I ran into Eartha and she asked me if I would be willing to take a picture of her in front of Stonehenge with my camera and I said, "Sure."
She said she hadn't taken any pictures with anyone else in the group and that I was the only one who had even offered, so I felt good about that, god bless her crazy heart.
Stonehenge in all its glory turned out to be too cold for most of us, so probably less than an hour and a half after arriving, we left Stonehenge.
Just before our departure, I had purchased a bottle of water from the gift store. I sat myself down next to Tessa for the 2 hour drive home back to London and we shared that bottle of water the entire way home. (Which later would prove to not have been a good idea.)
But the drive back to the city was pleasant. Most of us were wiped out from the day and needed dinner by the time we got back to the hotel. So a small group of us, including Tessa, went a few blocks away to an Indian restaurant where the dishes are all shared by the group. So all of us ate out of the same dishes and shared bites of each other's entrees and really enjoyed the hell out of that meal.
Iggi persuaded me to go out that night, and we went to several clubs and had lots to drink. We literally went out at 10 and weren't back to the hotel until 4 a.m.
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